We’re less than a week out from the YMAs. Which means we’re less than a week from tears — of sorrow and of glee — and from the temptation to ask impossible questions like “why” and “what the hell happened to book X”.

But hang on.

The Monday morning quarterbacking is a time-honored tradition in library land as in sports, and I would never take it away. However, let’s not forget that 9 committee members, plus the administrative assistant and the Booklist consultant, worked their tails off all year to bring us Monday’s winners. Their choice may not agree with our choices. We may harbor bitter resentment as a result. But they still made the right choice. And we can’t wait to find out what it is!

So let’s take a moment to say a big collective thank you to the RealCommittee for their hard work and for the arduous weekend they have coming up. Sitting in that room letting go of books you love and listening to others, valuing their wisdom over your own heart, talking for hours on ending looking to reach a consensus — it’s not easy, and it caps a year of close, thoughtful, intensive reading. So THANK YOU, RealCommittee! We can’t wait to hear what you have in store for us on Monday.

Now that we’ve acknowledged that RealCommittee is always right, you might be wondering: how often are we equally right?

As a collective, we’ve been on fire: the Pyrite has accurately predicted the RealPrintz winner for two years running! Last year we tanked on our honor predictions, though, whereas for 2014, we’d collectively predicted two of the four named honor books in addition to the winner. In short, if Dolssa wins the RealPrintz this year, we all officially rock at this.

On a more individual level, for the 2016 award all three of your Someday blogging team accurately predicted we’d see Bone Gap in the winner’s circle, but, like the collective, we 100% failed to predict either of last year’s honor titles. For 2015, we had less consensus but a fair amount of accurate predictions overall: Karyn predicted This One Summer and Grasshopper Jungle; Joy predicted I’ll Give You the Sun and Grasshopper Jungle; and Sarah predicted I’ll Give You the Sun and This One Summer. For 2014, Joy and Karyn both predicted Midwinterblood, and Joy had Eleanor & Park on her personal picks.

So now the 2017 fun continues. This post, our annual picks and predictions — heart books and head books — is one of our favorites to write. It’s a chance to consider everything the year has offered and weigh the books against each other. It’s kind of like the Pyrite, except there weren’t we all mixing head and heart just a bit?

Golden Boys by Sonya Hartnett Candlewick, April 2016 Reviewed from an ARC

Oh, friends, I may not be the person to write this review — not least because I haven’t technically finished reading this quite short book. I mean, I’ve read most of it, and what I’ve missed, I have skimmed through as I was trying to get ready for this semi-late review. If I just waited to post until tomorrow morning, I’d have it all done and feel slightly more legit about this. But…if I’m being honest, finishing isn’t going to get me where I need to be to make a solid call on this one. Hartnett is a past honoree, and Golden Boys has four well earned stars — the writing is lovely, full of well-integrated motifs and gorgeous imagery.

I know, I know, I sound like the most ungrateful reviewer around, not appreciating all this bounty! We’ve talked before about preferences and baggage, and the difference between reading for yourself, reading for a collection, and reading for committee (all so different!). I am always someone who wants a lot of plot in my plot, who would prefer that characters run around — and maybe swing a vorpal sword while they run. But I recognize that’s not always what I will get in my reads. Case in point here! [Read more…]